Husband of Ensign mistress indicted

Doug Hampton, a former top aide to Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) has been indicted on seven counts of violating the one-year lobbying ban imposed on senior congressional staffers.

Hampton, 48, allegedly violated that one-year ban by seeking help from Ensign and his aides for lobbying clients once he left Ensign’s office in April 2008. This includes getting Ensign to help set up a March 2009 meeting with Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood on behalf of Allegiant Air, a Las Vegas airline run by a longtime Ensign supporter, Maurice Gallagher.

Doug Hampton also worked for NV Energy once he left Ensign’s office. According to the Justice Department indictment, Doug Hampton improperly sought Ensign’s help in expediting an environment impact statement the company needed for a coal-fired power plant.

Hampton will be arraigned next week in federal court in Washington, D.C. Hampton faces a maximum fine of $250,000 and five years in prison for each of the seven counts.

Watchdog groups were furious with the fact that Doug Hampton was hit with federal charges while Ensign has escaped criminal prosecution, although a special counsel has been appointed by the Senate Ethics Committee to handle the case.

“It is an outrage that the Justice Department would choose to only prosecute Doug Hampton and not his well documented co-conspirator Senator John Ensign,” said Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. “The DOJ has wiped away any doubt that you really can get away with almost anything as long as you happen to be a high ranking government official.”

Ensign’s affair with Cindy Hampton, and the resulting federal and Senate Ethics Committee investigations into the aftermath of that extramarital relationship, destroyed Ensign’s political career. Ensign recently announced that he would retire from the Senate next year rather than seek reelection.

Ensign and Cindy Hampton began an affair in Dec. 2007. By early 2008, Doug Hampton became aware of the affair and tried to force Ensign to break it off, including enlisting the help of Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), Ensign’s roommate in Christian home on Capitol Hill, in doing so.